Women are protesting the lack of female priests.

ROME -- There's more than black or white smoke wafting over the Vatican.

A group of women who say they are priests launched pink smoke from a balcony overlooking the square on Wednesday to demand female ordination.

Their protest is a play on the smoke signals sent from the Sistine Chapel to indicate whether the cardinals assembled therein have agreed on a new pope. White smoke means they have; black smoke means they have not.

"The people of the Church are desperate for a leader who will be open to dialogue and embrace the gifts of women's wisdom in every level of church governance," said a statement issued by the Women's Ordination Conference.

Members of the group lit a flare to symbolize their message in Rome. They were not the only ones to use symbols to protest church principles.

Two topless activists from Femen were dragged away from the edge of St. Peter's Square on Wednesday by police. Femen activists have previously protested the Vatican's opposition to gay marriage.

Others threatened to protest for their personal requests.

Basketball star Dennis Rodman promised to be in St. Peter's Square on Wednesday in a makeshift popemobile as he campaigns for Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana to become the church's first black pope.

None of the cardinals will see it, since they will be sequestered inside the Vatican walls. They are allowed to travel only from the Vatican hotel through the gardens to the Sistine Chapel and back until they have elected a pope. No telephones, no newspapers, no television, no tweeting.

There was even some controversy over the Vatican smoke signals.

The Rev. Federico Lombardi joked Wednesday that he had been given the chemical details of the ink cartridges that are put in the Sistine Chapel burner to color the smoke that comes out of the chimney for all to see in St. Peter's Square. He said he might mangle the pronunciation because, "I didn't study this stuff, I studied the Bible."

Lombardi was asked by members of the hundreds of reporters assembled in Rome if the enormous smoke puffs that emerged Tuesday afternoon harmed the restored frescoes in the Sistine Chapel or the health of the 115 voting cardinals inside.

"The smoke didn't damage any of Michelangelo's frescoes," he said. "The prelates are all doing well, are in good spirits, and this morning some even walked to the Pauline Chapel, where they celebrated Mass before entering the Sistine Chapel."